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Monday, July 14, 2014

Attacked in St Martin De Re!!

Another late night watching the World Cup final, pity about the result but there ya go!

Today we decided to walk right round the wall surrounding St Martin De Re, it is an amazing structure that surrounds the town and was completed in 1702 evidently. There are a lot of scary areas along the wall that are not fenced at all ... we wondered how many people / animals had just gone over - it is a long drop ...

Part of the walk consisted of walking along the outside of the wall on the beach. There was one group of locals on the beach collecting oysters and another lot catching razor fish, by sprinkling salt on specific areas of the beach apparently, and then they pop up ...

The wall is huge, so are the tides, today was a 20ft tide!

The dogs were loving it, especially Bombo ...

We had a rest, but Sammie likes to make sure I don't nod off ...

Bombo high on the wall ...

The entrance to the harbour, there were a few boats anchored outside waiting for the tide ...

Inside the harbour the boats were stranded ...

A map of the Island ...

As promised yesterday....European men in red trousers! This is our first shining example ...

Once away from the harbour the side streets are very quiet ...

Red trouser no 2, but he was wearing a very nice Triumph jacket so will let him off ...

The other part of the harbour is separated by a lock so these boats float no matter what the tide is doing ...

The boys on the wall ...

This stairwell was inside the wall. There are lots of stairwells / staircases and tunnels dotted around the wall ...

Then the attack happened!!!

Whilst walking up a street the dogs spotted a cat, nothing unusual about that though. They barked at it for a bit and we just carried on walking. The next thing we knew, the bloody cat came running up behind us and attacked the dogs!! I have never seen anything like it in my life! Elaine took a claw for Bombo while lifting him out of the way and then he went in to attack Sammie! I managed to lift him up quickly, but Sammie had sustained a hit! We walked away as quickly as we could but the bloody thing still followed us hissing and howling away, it followed us for about 100 metres before finally jumping over a wall. Other pedestrians were also amazed at this 'attack cat'!!

Here is agro cat as he followed us along the road ,,,

I noticed that I had blood on my hands, this is where the cat had scratched poor little Sammie ...

It looked bad...

... and Sammie was a bit distressed ...

But once he was all cleaned up it wasn't too bad at all, it had just nicked him, thankfully.

Can't blame the cat, the dogs were barking at it, but by Christ it had some balls!

We had a bit of a rest back at the van for a while. Elaine went and sat in the sun to read her book and came back with the revelation that it had been written on this very island! (This is a book that she has had for ages, that she actually picked up at a jumble sale in Wales!) Weird!

Anyway, back to the walk, you can see the wall surrounding the town from this aerial shot (that I didn't take) ...

But I did take a pic of red trouser no 3 man ...

We went for a late evening walk back down to the harbour. As the sun was setting I had to take some more pics ...

We also decided that this place is our best place we have visited on the whole trip ...

It is a must see if you are passing through this way through France ...

We also checked out the real estate prices....off the Richter scale, unfortunately.

We can't praise this place enough though, it is bloody fantastic!!

Apart from men wearing red trousers that is!

Suddenly it all got to much for little Sammie. He had had a traumatic day and just sat down and refused to move, I had to carry him home!

By the way, today was Bastille day and well, it wasn't really happening as far as we could see! They did, however, put fireworks on tonight a the harbour, but that was it really! We thought it would have been a big 'hoo ha' but it seems not !

Tomorrow we will move on but via a vet to get the dogs a tapeworm treatment, as per the re-entry into UK requirements, and then a supermarket and then the rest of the island before we depart. You get charged 18 Euros on the tollway to get on the island, so we had better see it all ...

Aire is just inside the wall. Amazing place. Easy walk to the harbour and around the wall. Great for cycling too as it is all flat.

11 Euros per night. Security site with barrier entry and ticket machine. All facilities available. Campsite just down the road for any supplies you may need plus there is a little supermarket at the harbour.

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About Us

Why is this blog called the 'Manly Ferry' you may ask! Well, we are two poms - previously living in Sydney, Australia - which is the home of the real 'Manly Ferry'!
In March 2012 we left Oz and travelled to the UK where we moved aboard our Narrowboat 'Caxton', which we fully planned to rename 'NB The Manly Ferry' but it was too pretty to change it! We also brought our animals with us from Oz ... Bombo, Sam (dogs), Geoffrey, William and Jaffa (cats).
In April 2014 we sold our beloved narrowboat and replaced her with a motorhome, in which we explored a fair bit of Europe and a bit more of Blighty!
In Oct 14 we travelled to Spain (Mojacar) in our Citroen C3, along with our dogs, Bombo and Sam*, where we stayed in an apartment until the end of November, when we headed back to the UK. We were going to head back to Oz but had a change of plans so in Feb 2015 we bought ourselves a new motorhome, also called the 'Manly Ferry'.
So, we are now embarking on some brand new adventures in the UK and Europe !
My gorgeous wife Elaine passed away on 18th August 2016 aged 54. Now there is just me and the two doggies Bombo and Sammie